Give War a Chance!

The anti-war protesters get all the ink--but those in favor of the war are more prevalent.

All cats look gray in the dark. If you really value diversity, check out those who SUPPORT American action in Iraq. They range from the larger pockets of conservative thought to moderates, libertarians, populists, iconoclastic individualists--and even some liberal Democrats.

The most familiar are the over-represented neoconservatives like Bill Bennett, Bill Buckley, and Bill Kristol. Murray Rothbard once claimed there were only 112 identified NeoCons in the whole country, and 78 of them had syndicated columns.

PaleoCon Pat Buchanan isn't aboard for this effort. Buchanan doesn't see Iraq as a threat to the United States. He thought the same of Hitler and is historically descended from those who felt the same about George III, Santa Anna, Jeff Davis and Geronimo.

Also holding back is GOP Texas Congressman and paleo-libertarian Ron Paul, a rigid constitutionalist who believes the action is illegal without a formal declaration of war by Congress. He also isn't sure about the threat.

Paul and Buchanan share another characteristic: They both ran against a Bush for president on a third party ticket--and got creamed. Most of their old constituencies now support the President on Iraq.

Locally, there's a pro-Iraqi war cross section broader than the anti-war protestors:

· Bill Heuisler, former Marine, ex-cop, and current private investigator, speaks for a large group of veterans and much of the GOP mainstream. "There are a lot of us who wish we were younger and could get in on this one," he says, showing a complete confidence in the righteousness of the action.

"I'm fed up with the phony moral superiority of the left. If you won't fight to take out one of the most brutal tyrants in the world, who will you fight?" Heuisler adds. "Pacifism gets too many people killed."

· Scott Wood is a Republican, part-owner of Pryde Business Systems and a U.S. Air Force vet who served as a sergeant during Desert Shield and tried to get into Desert Storm. While he's no fan of P.J. O'Rourke, he adapted the political satirist's book title Give War a Chance to put on bumper stickers after Sept. 11.

Wood sees an all-out attack on all parts of those associated with the Sept. 11 attack on us as the only appropriate response. He considers the biggest problem with American policy to be the brake placed on it by coalition building, and the general acceptance of the false viability of "peaceful solutions."

"War is never the answer--unless it is the only answer," he says. "Failed diplomacy and foreign policy mistakes aside, we are now out of options."

· Phil Murphy has been a Libertarian candidate for Congress. He reviews movies for another local publication and is a founder of Brassroots, a local pro-firearms ownership group. He carries the principle of self-defense into international relations.

"This a Holy War, make no mistake about it," he says. "And we're still the good guys--even thought we're fighting the wrong war for the wrong reason a year too late, but don't let that bother you. It sure as hell doesn't bother me.

"WIN. Cripple and kill as many of those murdering bastards as humanly possible. Just fucking WIN. And keep it. And drill it. And exploit it. And deal with the terrorism and international repercussions as they come. It's war, dumb ass.

"There's going to be death. There's going to be a loser. There's going to be a winner. Deal with it. We're in a global war. It's time we started acting like it."

· Charles Heller is a local radio talk show host and producer, as well as a registered independent. He supports the war to give freedom to the Iraqi people: "My philosophy is simple. I support whatever extends personal freedom and oppose tyranny in all its forms. Eliminating Saddam's vicious and repressive regime fits that."

But his support of President Bush stops there--and for the same reason.

"I totally support the president's efforts in Iraq and totally oppose the Patriot Act both one and two, and the unconstitutional assault on freedom of expression found in the phony campaign finance reform bill he should have vetoed. For the latter two actions, he should be impeached."

· One of the foremost liberal Democrats to join the ranks of war supporters is former Tucson Weekly--and now Tucson Citizen--columnist Jeff Smith.

Jeff has parted company with his old left-wing and anti-war friends from the Vietnam era. He believes that Iraq isn't Vietnam, Saddam isn't Ho, and the World Trade Center wasn't the Gulf of Tonkin.

"I find the willingness of latte-bar liberals to call President Bush a bully and the world's most serious threat to peace to be utterly loathsome, supremely selfish and self-centered and founded on an unpardonable ignorance, which is in turn rooted in intellectual sloth." Smith wrote in a recent Citizen column.

"They believe that if we give Saddam Hussein his 'space,' he will leave the world and his own people in peace. If he does, he will be the first of his kind to do so in the history of human events," Smith's column continued.

He says this about war protesters: "Saddam cannot win militarily and he's smart enough to know it. His game is political--to avoid being totally destroyed while hoping the anti-war types will break the will of his enemies. They are the principal allies of this brutal butcher."

Western civilization is at war with militant Islam, and those who aid and shelter it. They despise democracy, personal freedom, progress and commerce. These ninth-century thugs appear in many places and mutations. They still want payback for the Crusades.

We invade Iraq a year and a half after Sept. 11 for the same reason we invaded Italy a year and a half after Pearl Harbor--because these bastards are also a package deal.